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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104756">When Ginny saw Harry</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nobodyknowstrouble/pseuds/Nobodyknowstrouble'>Nobodyknowstrouble</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What Went Unseen [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, First Crush, First Meetings, Obligatory Fuck You to J.K. Rowling's Transphobic Ass, POV Ginny Weasley, Platform 9 3/4, Pre-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron Weasley is a Good Friend, Summer, Summer before the Chamber of Secrets, The Burrow (Harry Potter), oblivious Ginny Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:55:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,852</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104756</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nobodyknowstrouble/pseuds/Nobodyknowstrouble</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>How Ginny Weasley developed her crush on Harry and how much it really had to do with the boy-who-lived.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ginny Weasley &amp; Ron Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What Went Unseen [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When Ginny saw Harry</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When Ginny saw Harry for the first time, they were at the barrier leading to Platform 9 ¾. </span>She hadn’t noticed him until he spoke up with a polite voice right next to her.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Excuse me“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was looking up at Mum with a hopeful expression.</span>
</p><p class="p1">He wore too large muggle clothes and broken glasses and Ginny wondered for a few seconds if maybe he was a muggle who had noticed them running through a solid stone wall.</p><p class="p2">But then she saw the owl cage perched on his trolley and reconsidered. If he had an owl he wasn’t a muggle.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Mum was smiling warmly at him. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hullo, dear. First time at Hogwarts? Ron’s new, too.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yes. The thing is – the thing is, I don’t know how to –”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“How to get on to the platform?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny wondered how in merlins name he wouldn’t know that. Didn’t Hogwarts explain that kind of stuff to muggleborns? </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But she very well couldn’t just ask that without being rude, so she watched him instead while Mum explained the barrier to him. </span>
</p><p class="p2">He looked nice. She didn’t know what exactly made her decide that. Maybe it was the pair of beautiful green eyes peeking out behind his glasses - someone with eyes like that couldn’t possibly be unpleasant.</p><p class="p2">It was a pity that he was going to be a year above her at Hogwarts - she would like to befriend him but that would be really hard once he’d had a year to make other friends. It made Ginny even more annoyed at the fact that she would have to wait another year before she could go to school - she had absolutely no idea how to know who to befriend and who not and now she had found someone she wanted to try and be friends with, and it couldn’t work.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Well, maybe Ron would be friends with the boy. </span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He wouldn’t. She knew that for a fact only a few minutes later. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Who?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Harry Potter!”</span>
</p><p class="p2"><span class="s1">A wave of excitement surged through Ginny. She had just seen </span> <span class="s2"> <em>Harry Potter.</em> </span> <span class="s1">Every thought of being friends with the boy immediately disappeared. Obviously Harry Potter wouldn’t befriend her or Ron. That was completely ridiculous, after all, Harry Potter was famous. A living legend.</span></p><p class="p2">It was impossible to imagine Harry Potter being friends with anyone. It was weird enough on its own that he was supposedly going to go to school. Why would Harry Potter go to school? It didn’t seem like a place for people like him. What would someone like Harry Potter need to learn anyway?</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">People like Harry Potter did mysterious and extremely important and powerful things all the time, they didn’t learn like normal people. </span>
</p><p class="p2">And because it was hard to imagine Harry Potter at school and impossible to imagine him with friends, she didn’t even try. The thoughts and impressions she had about the boy at the barrier were immediately forgotten, overshadowed by Ginny’s thoughts about her missed opportunity to get Harry Potter’s autograph.</p><p class="p2">Why had she just completely calmly stood next to Mum? She didn’t know what the right way to behave was, standing next to someone like Harry Potter, but that wasn’t it for sure. When you were around someone like Harry Potter, you couldn’t just act like around anyone else.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She had to do it again and this time right. </span>
</p><p class="p2">“Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please…”</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You’ve already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn’t something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny sulkily closed her mouth. What was Mum’s problem?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was Harry Potter!<br/>
</span>
</p><p class="p1">He was famous.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was a legend.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And if Ginny wanted to see him, why couldn’t she just do so? It wasn’t like you run across someone like him every day and Ginny thought she really should be allowed to go looking for him. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But Mum had to be weird about it and say No. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Not fair.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The first time Ginny saw Harry Potter was at the barrier leading to Platform 9 ¾.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She and Mum were waiting for her brothers to return when he came through the barrier. He stood out with his messy black hair and his snowy owl and she spotted him immediately. She had hoped to maybe see him again. </span>
</p><p class="p2">“There he is, Mum, there he is, look!”</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She couldn’t help excitedly jumping up and down while pointing in his direction. It was so thrilling to see him. Like meeting Merlin himself - it just didn’t feel real. People like Harry Potter starred in bedtime stories, they didn’t just get off the Hogwarts Express.</span>
</p><p class="p2">“Harry Potter! Look, Mum! I can see-“</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Be quiet, Ginny, and it’s rude to point.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny’s arm fell down, her gaze still fixed on the boy-who-lived, completely oblivious to anything or anyone else. She wouldn’t miss a moment. </span>
</p><p class="p2">She contemplated telling Mum that pointing wasn’t rude when it came to people like Harry Potter, but Mum was weird with those kinds of things so she thought better of it.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Instead, Ginny wrecked her brain about how she could get closer to Harry Potter. She couldn’t believe her luck when Mum let go of her hand and was about to run ahead - when suddenly she found herself wrapped in one of Fred and George’s bear hugs and when they finally let go of her, she could only see how Harry Potter disappeared around a corner.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Just her luck.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The first time Ginny heard about Harry was in the car on their way back home.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron was telling her about Hogwarts and she absorbed every word. Her older brothers weren’t as new in Hogwarts and they got annoyed by her questions way too fast, but Ron had only just finished his first year and he willingly told her everything.</span>
</p><p class="p1">“Harry and I immediately became friends on the train”, he told her.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny didn’t really care about Ron‘s friends as much as about his classes and the castle and the teachers, but she still wondered who this instant-friend-Harry-guy was. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Did he come from some family she knew? When she decided to ask Ron, he looked at her as though she’d lost her mind.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Harry grew up with Muggles”, he said in a tone suggesting that it was common knowledge.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny felt sulky. How was she supposed to know that this Harry guy was a muggleborn?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“-Hermione was a little annoying in the beginning but after Halloween we became friends with her-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny continued to eagerly listen to Ron‘s stories, bombarding him with questions about everything she could think of. But it still took several minutes before she heard something that suddenly made Ron’s best friend actually interesting.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“He is what?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Youngest member of a house team in a century. We were all sure McGonagall would expel him but she was so happy about how good a flier he is – and it even was his first time on a broom! – that she got him onto the team. A few people complained, saying she only did it, because she’s playing favourites, but only until they saw him play-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny could only stare at Ron. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The youngest house-player in a century! Who would have thought Ron could befriend someone that cool?</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>Her older brothers always thought of Ginny as a complete baby, always had - so much that they even refused to let her go near a broom. Only with Ron, she sometimes was successful to get him to go flying with her. Of course even he didn’t ever let her do any cool moves without threatening to land immediately. Not to mention letting her play Quidditch.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny blamed Fred and George for that one, because before they had brainwashed him into thinking that Quidditch “wasn’t for little girls”, he hadn’t seen any problem. Some day she would get back at them for that.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Anyway, one afternoon, a few days after her brothers return, Ginny managed to talk Ron into flying with her. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was fun and it took a while for both of them to get tired but after a while they rested on top of one of their apple trees. Ginny sat with her feet lazily dangling over her tree branch and squinted at the sun. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Tell me another story about Hogwarts.”She was hoping for better stories, now that her parents weren’t there, in listening range, making Ron filter everything he said. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron seemed to consider it for a moment, before a daring gleam appeared in his eyes.</span>
</p><p class="p2">“You have to vow never to tell Mum and Dad“.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny didn’t even hesitate before agreeing, causing Ron to grin mischievously. It made him look eerily similar to the twins. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So, it all started at the library. Harry, Hermione and I didn’t think of anything bad when suddenly Hagrid – the groundskeeper – appeared and looked for books about dragons of all things! We asked him about it but he got all twitchy and said he didn’t want to talk about it, but after a while he told us to come to his hut later-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Why did he even answer at all, you’re just a bunch of first years”, Ginny wondered. Couldn’t this Hagrid just tell them to mind their business?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“He’s our friend. He gave Harry his letter and told him about magic and everything and Harry took Hermione and me to tea with him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Anyway, we went to his hut and found out he had somehow gotten himself an actual dragon egg-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny didn’t believe a single word Ron told her. Or she didn’t, until he showed her the letter Charlie had sent as an answer, before she was finally convinced that he was telling the truth.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">After that, there was a change to how Ginny thought about Ron’s best friend. For once, he wasn’t just "Ron’s best friend" anymore. He was Harry. And as he was now Harry, a picture started forming in Ginny’s head.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was a talented Quidditch player.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He helped his friends, even if it meant getting in trouble.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His friends were people like giant groundskeepers.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry lived in the muggle world.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny wanted to get to know him.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny didn’t want to admit it but she was nervous about going to Hogwarts.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Not much, really.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was more a healthy respect.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A slight jitter.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It kind of helped her to know she had Ron, even though she wouldn’t admit it under torture. Therefore, when she noticed how things had changed with Ron, her nervousness started turning into fear.</span>
</p><p class="p2">There was a certain dynamic between Ginny and her brothers. Bill and Charlie as the oldest had always been the cool ones, the ones who were allowed the most and admired by everyone else. Fred and George were Fred and George. Percy was the one who learned the most and followed the rules and kept to himself.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">All five of them had something in common:</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They viewed Ron and Ginny, being the two youngest, as a burden. They were the annoying little kids who always tried to get into their business.</span>
</p><p class="p2">To be fair, they probably weren’t too far of.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Especially Ginny had always tried to be like her older brothers. With Ron it was different though. Ginny had never admired him or viewed him as a role model like the others – but he was the brother who was always there.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The one she could go to when she wanted to complain about the others excluding her, the one who helped her steal Fred and George’s wands so they could practice magic in secret and the one whose departure to Hogwarts had been the worst. Ron, who was always there, suddenly wasn’t there anymore.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And now Ron was back but it was different. It didn’t feel the same anymore, not like they were the two youngest. It felt almost like Ron was one of her older brothers and only tolerating her presence. Ginny at first had no idea why she felt that way - it was strange, because they didn’t spend any less time with each other than before Hogwarts and Ron didn’t even complain about Ginny being around him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny thought that maybe it felt that way, because for the first time, Ron had something over her. He had a whole year of Hogwarts experience and no matter how much questions Ginny asked, it would take time before she’d be able to completely understand, before she could fill the stories with the proper pictures and people.</span>
</p><p class="p2">But deep down she knew that Hogwarts itself wasn’t really it. It was something different, something way worse. After all, Ginny had always known Ron would get to go to Hogwarts for a year before she would follow. But she hadn’t really expected him to get his own friends.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Well, of course she hadn’t thought he would spend the year without any people he considered friends at the end of it.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But it wasn’t that way.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They were real friends, best friends, friends who weren’t family, but Ron seemed to consider them as such anyway.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was suddenly part of a new team.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Where it always used to be Ron and Ginny it now was Ron, Harry and Hermione.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He talked about them all the time, every single story he told seemed to start with “Harry, Hermione and I”.</span>
</p><p class="p2">“Harry, Hermione and I ran away with Neville and ended up at this door Hermione spelled open and behind it was a three-headed-dog-“</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Harry, Hermione and I all throughout the year were sure it was Snape-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Even “You’d get along with Harry and Hermione for sure”.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It scared Ginny, because it showed her that everything had drastically changed and suddenly she didn’t belong anymore. Who was she supposed to turn to now? Percy?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron had grown up and left her behind.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He had something over her.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron was part of a new team Ginny hadn’t even known existed for the longest time.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny and Ron, the two youngest of the family didn’t seem to exist anymore and suddenly, Ginny felt like she had to fill the place of the youngest all alone.</span>
</p><p class="p2">But she wouldn’t stand for it - she wouldn’t just let everything change for the worse without trying to intervene.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And because of that, she had a plan. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She knew exactly how to make everything right again: She would befriend Ron’s friends.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was the perfect solution for exactly two reasons.</span>
</p><p class="p2">First, it was the easy way of solving the problem that Ron had something over her.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She had no idea how to befriend children her age and she knew even less how to figure out who to befriend. It had been one of her greatest worries, even before everything had changed. To make it worse, her worries had only been about finding normal friends, not the kind of chosen-family-go-through-everything-together-friends Ron had somehow managed to get.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And because Ginny knew, she couldn’t just easily pull people like that of nowhere, she would just take the same ones. Ron’s friends were already there and it wasn’t that much of a leap to think that his friends could become hers too.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But her second reason, was the one, that really convinced her to go through with it, no matter how guilty she felt.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There was no possible way, Ron could turn into one of her older brothers, if she was friends with his friends. He couldn’t start viewing her as his useless baby-sister if his friends saw her as a friend, could he?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And Ginny hoped with all her might that it would work. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She wanted that Ron stayed her brother, instead of turning into one of her older brothers.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She didn’t want him to start dismissing her and always telling her to go away.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It scared her more than anything that it would mean to be at Hogwarts without anyone to trust - not that she didn’t trust her older brothers of course. But it wasn’t the same – they just weren’t her go-to-brothers.</span>
</p><p class="p1">All that figured out she grew gladder than ever about every story about Harry.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Of course she also liked Ron’s other best friend, Hermione, from what she knew about her. But it was different with Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">When Ron’s stories featured some joke Harry had made, Ginny immediately thought of a good reply - it hadn’t taken long, before she started to think more about Harry, about what he would say to this or that happening, or what he would think of her jokes.</span>
</p><p class="p2">And every time Ron told her about their adventures, Ginny imagined what good of a team she and Harry would be.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron told her about a Quidditch game and Ginny just knew Harry wouldn’t ever prevent her from playing. He would understand her.</span>
</p><p class="p2">She wanted to be friends with Harry because she was sure, with him there wouldn’t be any worries about the complicated rules and dynamics of friendship.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">With Harry she didn’t have any doubts or guilt about her plan to befriend Ron’s friends because she knew she would be friends with him no matter the circumstances.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And that eased her fear of Hogwarts.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Three weeks after Ginny’s brothers came back from Hogwarts, she for the first time heard something that was different from all the things she usually heard about Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It wasn’t one of Ron’s normal school stories.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It wasn’t anything to do with Quidditch.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It wasn’t something about exciting adventures like dragon smuggling.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And it wasn’t something showing Ginny just how loyal Harry was to his friends.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It wasn’t even one of the casual remarks Ron made, about something his friends had once said about something. Or more importantly for Ginny, Harry had said about something.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She was always listening for remarks like that.</span>
</p><p class="p2">“Something’s wrong”, Ron said while nervously pacing up and down the carpet.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He did that a lot lately.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It isn’t like Harry. He doesn’t answer my letters and he doesn’t answer Hermione’s. Those muggles probably intercept his letters or forbid him to answer-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ron!”, Mum said indignantly, “How dare you go around saying something like that? Didn’t we teach you not to judge people by their blood or their abilities?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron turned to her, shocked. He hadn’t noticed her entering.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“But Mum! Harry’s muggles are awful! You should have heard the things he to-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ronald Weasley! I forbid you to talk bad about this family!”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron glared at Mum but he didn’t say anything else.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Harry has to wear the old clothes of his cousin even though they’re way too large for him and they have more than enough money to buy him his own”, Ron told Ginny later.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He didn’t seem like he really wanted to tell her that much about Harry’s home live, but his urge to talk to someone about it took the better of him. It was nice to know that out of all their siblings, Ginny was still the first choice. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And Ginny was only too eager to listen, even though she didn’t like what she was hearing at all.</span>
</p><p class="p2">“They intercepted all his Hogwarts letters. And before this year he never got anything for his birthday or Christmas. And Harry said his Cousin always beat people up who wanted to befriend Harry-“</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">While listening Ginny’s picture of Harry slightly shifted - or, well, that was the wrong word, because what she thought about Harry stayed the same. But it got more depth. The background seemed to fill out and it made Harry stand out more somehow. It didn’t really change anything except that Ginny started worrying about him and because of that, she thought of him more and more and always and constantly. Worrying if he was alright. Ginny didn’t consider that maybe that wasn’t the only reason, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">All she knew was that she had to know more about him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Imperatively.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It took several days before she ran out of subtle methods. She had started out with just asking Ron for more Hogwarts stories because pretty much every story featured Harry, but after a while Ron insisted that he “really didn’t have more to tell”. And therefore she had to fall back on less subtle ways.</span>
</p><p class="p2">“Then tell me about Harry.”</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron shot her a sideways glance.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Why do you want me to tell you about Harry?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny shrugged.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Harry’s in all your stories – maybe you can think of more if you start out talking about him.”</span>
</p><p class="p2">Ron seemed mollified.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He thought about it for a moment, before launching into a story about a potions lesson where Snape had been particularly nasty, followed by a long story about Snape’s awfulness, garnished by jokes Harry had made about him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny was satisfied.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ginny, if you say ‚Harry’ one more time, I’m going to hex your mouth shut!”, Ron exclaimed annoyed.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny sulkily crossed her arms.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“At the beginning of the holidays you liked talking about him!”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron glared at her.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“About Harry and Hermione and everything that happened at Hogwarts-I didn’t intend to turn into the official point of contact for questions like ‘What’s Harry’s favourite dessert?’”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You only say that because you don’t know!”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yes I do! Treacle Tart. And now go and annoy somebody else. Write fan mail to Harry for all I care – it won’t arrive anyway.”</span>
</p><p class="p2">Ginny almost flinched.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘Now go and annoy somebody else.’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was something her older brothers always told Ron and her.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It wasn’t something Ron said to Ginny, no matter how much they fought.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It made Ginny even more determined in her plan to befriend Ron’s friends.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And because of that, she was completely convinced the amount of questions she was asking was reasonable - it was only research after all. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But obviously, she couldn’t tell that to Ron. Instead she did the natural thing – keep fighting back.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I don’t write fan mail to anyone!”, she yelled and glared at Ron as angrily as possible.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Prone to inconvenient timing, Fred and George chose that moment to enter the sitting room - and of course they had heard part of the fight.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Awww does little Ginnykins want to write fan mail to the famous Harry Potter?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny baulked for a moment.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She and Ron had talked about Harry constantly these last few weeks. Where in the world had they gotten the idea she was talking about Harry Potter all of a sudden?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I certainly don’t write fan mail and especially not to Harry Potter”, she said infuriated.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Without any success.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh how cute, Ginnykins is in love!”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Do you hear that George? The wedding bells are already ringing!”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And with that they danced in a circle around Ginny while singing a wedding march, until Ginny had to escape into the orchard.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron at least had the decency to look a little bit sorry for her underneath his smugness.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The following weeks were exhausting, simply put.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ron was pretty much unresponsive, as worried as he was and after a while his worry even started to rub off on Fred and George, who too thought the silence was really uncharacteristic for Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Everyone else, who didn’t know Harry too well, started worrying about Ron - he was really a complete mess, he wrote daily to Hermione and got lengthy answers, and if he could, he wrote two times a day to Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny, like everyone else, was worried. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">About Ron of course, but he was at least safely at the burrow.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">More she worried about Harry and that was really the only reason her thoughts always seemed to be about him. And obviously it was this worry that was the reason she asked more and more questions about him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">With little success.</span>
</p><p class="p2">Sometimes Ron answered but most of the time he said, highly annoyed, that Ginny should finally understand Harry was “completely normal” and “not some hero out of your stupid bedtime stories” or that Harry “couldn’t stand all the attention anyway”.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny had no clue what he meant with that.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry wasn’t even there, he didn’t know Ginny was asking Ron about him. But even if Ron hadn’t been useless, mum forbade Ginny from asking him about Harry because he worried already so much about him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">So she turned to Fred and George instead. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A foolish mistake - they were even worse. The moment they heard Harry‘s name, they started talking about Ginny’s apparent crush on Harry Potter. And no matter how often she told them she didn’t even mean Harry Potter, they didn’t listen.</span>
</p><p class="p2">In her last desperate attempt, she even turned to Percy - but he was just as useless as everyone else.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ginny, Harry is a boy like everyone else and you should treat him as such”, he said, before kicking her out of his room to polish his prefect badge or whatever it was he did when he was alone.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">When Ginny finally gave up - mostly - she was only more confused than before. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">What did her brothers think she saw Harry as, if not a normal boy?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The only answer she had to that question, was provided courtesy to Fred and George: As someone like Harry Potter.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But that was completely ridiculous.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny really had no idea how the two of them could ever think she meant Harry Potter when she was asking about Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p2">She wouldn’t ever ask about Harry Potter's favourite dessert, or Harry Potter's favourite subject or Harry Potter's favourite Quidditch Team.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was an utterly crazy idea.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Someone like Harry Potter didn’t have a favourite subject or a favourite dessert and he certainly didn’t care for Quidditch.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was a legend after all.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He only had important friends like Dumbledore or the minister of magic, he spend his days doing important stuff.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And if Ginny ever wanted to find something out about him she wouldn’t ask her brothers because everything there was to know about Harry Potter was written in books about him and her brothers certainly hadn’t read them.</span>
</p><p class="p2">Harry wasn’t Harry Potter.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was Ron’s friend.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was someone Ginny wanted to be friends with.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry played Quidditch.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry saved dragons.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry helped his friends even if it meant getting into trouble for it.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry had the same sense of humour as Ginny.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was entirely different from Harry Potter - Harry was the one Ginny thought about the whole day; Because she was worried of course. </span>
</p><p class="p2">Harry was the one she wanted to know more about, because she wanted to know what to talk to him about and how to make sure he would enjoy his visit if he ever happened to come to the burrow.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Did her stupid brothers really think she wanted to know about topics she could talk with Harry Potter about? Did they think Harry Potter would ever come to the Burrow?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Absolutely not.</span>
</p><p class="p2">She came to the conclusion that her brothers were simply ridiculously thick.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Wanting to know more about Harry didn’t have anything to do with her not seeing him as a normal boy or hero worshipping him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She wanted to know more about Harry because he was Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was it.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ron did you hear anything from Harry lately?”, asked Dad worriedly.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny looked up in curiosity.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was nothing compared to Ron - he jumped to his feet, looking like he was expecting to hear someone was found dead in a ditch.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“What? Why? Did something happen? Is he okay? Is he hurt? Is-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ron, calm down! He’s fine! He just received a warning for the use of underage magic yesterday evening.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“WHAT?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Instead of reassured, Ron looked only more worried by this statement.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Dad, something’s wrong. Harry would never risk getting expelled from Hogwarts. Something awful must have happened. Please, can’t we drive there and pick him up-“</span>
</p><p class="p2">Ron had suggested that several times already but for the first time Dad seemed to consider it.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“All right. I have a meeting with Dumbledore in the middle of next week anyway and then I’ll talk to him about if-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“But Dad that’s way too long!”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Ron”, Dad started gently, “we can’t just drop by at someone like Harry. There are rules and regulations to protect him-“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Those regulations don’t protect him, they only make everything worse!”, shouted Ron angrily.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But Dad didn’t budge.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Ginny meanwhile wondered why in the world Dad would have to talk to Dumbledore before visiting some muggleborn student.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">For the rest of the day Ron was angry and withdrawn and either sat sulkily in a corner, or wore a hole in the carped with all his pacing - Ginny was fully convinced he would explode from all his nervousness before Dad even got the chance to talk to Dumbledore. That is, until his demeanour changed radically.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The next day he suddenly was all calm and determined but no matter how much Ginny tried, he didn’t tell her anything.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And if that wasn’t enough, the day after that, the twins acted like Christmas had arrived early.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Oh little Ginnykins-you’re just too young to understand matters of this importance”, they said when Ginny tried to make them talk.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It really wasn’t like Ginny hadn’t known something was afoot. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She should have expected it. The moment the twins got all excited and Ron got calm, she should have known what was happening. And still she somehow was completely oblivious when she walked into the kitchen the next morning.</span>
</p><p class="p2">The first thing she saw were Ron, Fred and George sitting at the table and Mum who was making breakfast.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Then mum stepped away from the table and revealed messy black hair and too large clothes and what little Ginny could see of his glasses.</span>
</p><p class="p2">When Ginny saw Harry, actually saw him this time, it still took her way longer than she cared to admit, to finally – finally! – make the connection.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry, Ron’s best friend, Harry who she’d wanted to know all about , Harry who she was always thinking about - that Harry was Harry Potter.</span>
</p><p class="p2">How in the world had she not put that together?</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Not even after Ron had told her that Harry had to wear his cousin’s old clothes. She had seen Harry Potter’s too large clothes at the train station after all!</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She hadn’t even figured it out after Dad had said, he had to talk to Dumbledore about Harry’s visit.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Merlin, not even after Fred and George had started talking about Harry Potter had she made the connection.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">How had that gone over her head?</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But with every second the answer grew more obvious even though she didn’t want to face it.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s2"> <em>“The poor boy isn’t something you goggle at in a zoo.”</em> </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">That was what Mum had said and Ginny hadn’t listened, hadn’t even wondered why she’d said that.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Now she knew it. It was, because Ginny had acted like Harry Potter was some kind of curiosity. Some exhibit to gawk at.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A living legend without a right to a normal live.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She had pointed at him and shouted at him and stared at him. And it took the realisation that Harry Potter was the Harryshe had heard about the whole summer long, for her to finally see how wrong that was.</span>
</p><p class="p2"><br/>
Harry had friends.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was helpful.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was selfless. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry played Quidditch.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry got into trouble.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry was brave.</span>
</p><p class="p2"><br/>
All these were facts she knew about Harry. And therefore they were facts she knew about Harry Potter.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And only now that she knew that Harry and Harry Potter were one and the same, did she understand that even a living legend, someone out of a bedtime story was still a person.</span>
</p><p class="p2">That was what Mum, Ron, Fred and George and even Percy had tried to tell her.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And she just didn’t get it.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Even worse, her brothers had greatly underestimated how little she saw Harry Potter as a normal boy.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Her brothers had known that she only had hero worship to offer for Harry Potter, and they had known that Harry was Harry Potter while simultaneously seeing that he was a normal person.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And because of that they impossibly could have seen that Ginny wasn’t asking about Harry Potter, the living legend, when she started asking about Harry.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They had heard questions about Harry as a person and had concluded that it meant they were questions about Harry Potter, the celebrity, because Harry was Harry Potter the celebrity.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">To notice that this wasn’t the case they would’ve had to understand how right they were about Ginny not seeing Harry Potter as a person.</span>
</p><p class="p2">It wasn’t Harry but Harry Potter she had pointed and shouted at in excitement.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It needed the undeniable truth that there wasn’t a difference, for her to finally notice that it shouldn’t make any difference.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry Potter was a person.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was a real person and now that she understood, Ginny felt a wave of shame and embarrassment surge through her at the thought of her own behaviour.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry had probably felt awful being gawked at like that.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">How could she ever look him in the eyes again?</span>
</p><p class="p2">Suddenly, as if he had heard her thoughts, Harry turned his head in Ginny’s direction.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She let out a startled scream and bolted out of the kitchen, frantically wondering how in the world she could’ve ever forgotten those startling green eyes and knowing that the answer lay somewhere in the fact that it would’ve been impossible for her to not see him as a person while knowing he had eyes that looked so warm and kind and simply beautiful.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It took no time at all until she was in her room, leaning against the door from the inside.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Her question was answered.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She couldn’t look Harry in the eyes without dissolving into nothingness out of pure shame.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">On the other hand, dissolving into nothingness didn’t sound that bad at the moment. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He must hate her.</span>
</p><p class="p2">She would at least do him the favour to stay distant and out of his way. It was his right to never want to see her again. And if they ever were forced to interact in any way, Ginny would just behave normally. At least she hoped she could do so, because every time she thought of Harry’s curios face when he’d looked up in the kitchen, she saw herself squealing and jumping up and down while pointing at him. Even standing alone in her room the pure thought had her going red and rigid in embarrassment.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Harry at best thought her to be ridiculous and at worst hated her.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There weren’t any other options.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He would never want to be her friend.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She would be lucky to be considered “Ron’s little sister”.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Because if he didn’t view her as Ron’s sister she would only be the girl who shouted at him and that would be too awful.</span>
</p><p class="p2">No, no matter what she had imagined this summer, she wouldn’t ever be able to be friends with him. But she would at least try to rectify her behaviour.</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Under Ginny’s watch, nobody would ever dare to view Harry as anything but his very own person ever again.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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